“The good thing is our website does rank well
in searches,” he says. “It offsets some of the costs
we have through paid ads.”
Google dominates online search and
advertising; this June it had a 62.4% share
of the market for searches done on desktop
computers, well above the 25.2% held by
Microsoft sites, according to the research firm
Comscore. Google is so much a part of online life
that it’s common to hear people use “Google” as
a verb to mean “search online.”
But while Google’s power and reach make it
appealing to small businesses, those strengths
may also be a problem, government officials
say. The Justice Department, Federal Trade
Commission and House Judiciary Committee are
investigating possible antitrust issues at Google
and other big tech companies. And earlier this
month, officials of 48 states, Washington, D.C. and
Puerto Rico said they’re investigating Google’s
“potential monopolistic behavior.” Several officials
suggested the investigation included Google’s
search and advertising business.
Kent Walker, Google’s senior vice president for
global affairs, said in a blog post, “it’s of course
right that governments should have oversight to
ensure that all successful companies, including
ours, are complying with the law. ... We look
forward to showing how we are investing in
innovation, providing services that people want,
and engaging in robust and fair competition.”
Small businesses have several ways to appear on
Google search pages. The most basic is what’s called
an organic search, where, for example, a restaurant’s
website shows up when someone searches for
keywords like “French restaurant brunch.”